News & Insights
Building Leaders in the AI Era
If AI changes how experience is gained, how should organisations develop future leaders?
Artificial intelligence is changing how work gets done at a rapid pace, but it is also changing how employees gain the experience traditionally associated with leadership development.
According to research by Cognizant and Pearson, an average of 33% of entry-level tasks are now completed by AI, with 96% of HR leaders expecting entry-level roles to evolve into AI supervision positions within the next five years.
[Source: Pearson]
As routine work becomes increasingly automated, organisations may need to rethink how employees build judgement, develop decision-making skills and prepare for leadership. Many of the tasks now being automated were repetitive, but they also gave employees opportunities to prove themselves, learn through experience and gradually earn greater responsibility.
Leadership is becoming more human
As AI assumes more responsibility for technical execution, expertise alone may no longer be enough to anchor leadership. Instead, organisations are placing greater value on capabilities such as judgement, communication and the ability to provide context, align teams and guide change.
The Pearson research found that 97% of HR leaders believe human-centred skills have become more important in the AI era, while 64% say organisations increasingly value the ability to identify new problems rather than simply solve existing ones.
A further 67% report placing greater value on liberal arts education, recognising the importance of communication, contextual reasoning and interdisciplinary thinking alongside technical expertise.
The findings suggest leadership is shifting from technical authority towards enabling others to perform effectively. As AI becomes more capable of analysing information and supporting execution, leaders may increasingly be valued for their ability to exercise judgement, build trust and create clarity in more complex environments.
[Source: Pearson]
Should organisations rethink leadership development?
Recognising the shift is one challenge, but preparing for it is another. While 95% of HR leaders believe middle managers will play a crucial role in helping employees use AI effectively, almost half of organisations (46%) do not proactively provide AI-specific upskilling.
The gap suggests organisations recognise that leadership is changing, but have yet to adapt how future leaders are developed.
According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, 67% of CEOs say that as technology becomes more pervasive, competitive differentiation will depend on having the right expertise in the right roles with the right incentives. Yet separate IBM research found that only 20% of executives believe HR is responsible for directing future workforce strategy, highlighting a disconnect between workforce transformation and leadership development.
[Source: IBM Institute for Business Value]
Redesigning job roles is only part of the challenge. As AI changes work at a rapid pace, organisations may also need to rethink how leadership capability is developed. Rather than relying on traditional career pathways, future leaders may need more deliberate opportunities to build judgement, accountability and decision-making as routine work becomes increasingly automated.
Where is leadership heading?
Artificial intelligence is unlikely to reduce the importance of leadership. Instead, it is changing what effective leadership looks like.
As AI becomes embedded across organisations, leadership may increasingly be defined not by knowing the most, but by creating clarity from complexity. The ability to provide context, exercise judgement and align people around a shared direction may become increasingly valuable as technology takes on more routine execution.
For organisations, the challenge extends beyond AI adoption itself to whether leadership development evolves alongside it.
La Royale Group Perspective
AI adoption is becoming a question of organisational capability, not simply technology. For investors, the key consideration is whether businesses can translate AI investment into sustained gains in productivity, decision-making and competitive positioning.
From our perspective, companies that integrate AI effectively across their workforce may be better positioned to adapt as the technology evolves. The quality of leadership, talent development and organisational structure are increasingly relevant alongside the technology itself.
This shifts the investment lens beyond AI adoption alone. The ability to develop talent, retain critical expertise and adapt how work is organised may prove important to capturing the long-term value of AI.